Loyalty Test
by Prospero's Pal
Summary: Malcolm fails an important test, creating a rift between him and his brothers.
1. Agent Sly Fox

Francis Wilkerson opened the e-mail from his brother Reese. He was amused by the subject line: Turd. He was mildly surprised Reese was even using the computer he shared with Malcolm and Dewey. He had always been adverse to anything that resembled schoolwork and sending an e-mail instead of making a phone call involved spelling, something he hated worse than reading.

"Hi Francis! Look at me, I'm using tech! Woo-Hoo! I love the spell checker, don't even have to think, it just spells for me if I get a word even half right. I'm writing 2 you about Malcolm. He's really turned into a turd lately and I think we should bring him down some and get his giant brain to help us instead of being an uppity shit. What do you think?"

Francis paused before hitting reply. He knew Reese was an unsophisticated computer user to say the least. He thought that he would not cover his tracks and Malcolm would see the e-mails between them. He decided to call instead. Francis glanced at his watch, it was 3:30 in the afternoon back home and he knew both his parents would still be at work. Since Reese was on the computer, he surmised that Malcolm wasn't home, he probably was working on a school assignment with Stevie or some other nerd. Francis shut down his laptop and went down to the shabby Marlin Academy rec room to use the phone.

Dewey answered.

"I have a collect call from Francis do you accept the charges?"

"What?"

"A collect call from Francis, do you accept the charges?"

"A what?"

Francis blurted out, "Dewey! Just say yes!"

"Yes!"

"Go ahead, sir."

"Hi, buddy! How you doin? Go get Reese, I need to talk to him."

Thirty seconds later Reese picked up the phone.

"Hello, Francis?"

"Hey. I got your e-mail. Now listen carefully."

Over the next 10 minutes Francis carefully laid out his plan to bring Malcolm back into the band of brothers, and as Reese had so eloquently put it, stop him from being an uppity shit.

As instructed by Francis, Reese deleted the original e-mail he had sent, emptied the deleted mail folder, then he wrote another one. He left this one in the sent folder where snoopy Malcolm would surely find it. In it, he asked his older brother for money, as much as he could come up with, because he owed it to "some big scary guys." Francis sent a reply saying he was sorry but he didn't have any money and he should ask Malcolm for help. He told Reese to delete his reply but to leave it in the deleted folder so Malcolm could find it.

Malcolm walked into the bedroom. He had told Reese he would be back around 4:30 after working on his science project with Stevie. Reese was ready. As soon as he heard him open the door to their bedroom, he acted guilty and tried to shut down the computer but was apparently too flustered to do it properly, just like Francis had instructed. Malcolm laughed and was convinced he had caught his brother looking at porn. He pushed Reese aside and sat down.

"You are so busted!" Malcolm was disappointed there wasn't a browser open and only the e-mail program was running.

Reese started to yell. "Don't look at that! It's private! Stop it!" He half-heartedly tried to shove his brother out of the way and grab the mouse but the younger boy was too quick. Malcolm clicked on the sent folder and saw the message to Francis.

Reese pretended to sulk. "I hate you!" He screamed at his brother and threw himself face down on his bed.

Malcolm read Reese's plea for money and quickly found the reply from Francis in the deleted folder. He smirked as he thought Reese was too dumb to empty it out. After reading both e-mails he sat there for a few seconds pondering the situation. He looked over at Reese.

"Dude, what the heck is all this about? What do you need money for and who are these big scary guys?"

"What do you care? You don't even want to be my brother anymore, all you want to do is be with your nerdy friends and do school work. Leave me alone." Reese Wilkerson was a born actor. He gave his brother a heart breaking look of sadness mixed with fear. He sniffed a few times then turned his face to the wall.

Malcolm was more annoyed than sympathetic. Reese was always getting himself into trouble and expected everyone else to bail him out. "Look man, I'm sorry but I don't have any money. You're just going to have to figure this one out for yourself." Malcolm opened his backpack and took out his assignments and began doing his homework. Reese smiled. He knew Malcolm was lying. His brother had exactly $575 saved up. The cash was in a large envelope duct taped to the underside of Dewey's underwear drawer, a place Malcolm was convinced Reese would never look. He was wrong. Reese may not be book smart but when it comes to being devious and sneaky, he was a genius. He had found the money the same day Malcolm had hidden it.

That night, Reese snuck out of the house via the bedroom window as soon as Malcolm was asleep. He ran down to the corner convenience store and looked at his watch. Perfect! It was 11:15. Reese went into the store and bought a giant grape Slurpee, two Slim Jims, and a phone card. He paid with a twenty he had lifted from Malcolm's stash. He went back outside and waited by the pay phone until the pre-arranged time of 11:30. He used the phone card to call the rec room number at Marlin Academy and Francis immediately picked up.

"Agent Sly Fox reporting!" Reese loved play acting and making up secret identities for himself.

Francis laughed. "Ok, Sly Fox, how did it go?"

Reese reported that Phase One had gone down perfectly, just as Francis said it would. The older boy was disappointed Malcolm had not even tried to help Reese out of what appeared to be a serious jam. He wasn't really surprised though, Malcolm had always been the most selfish of the brothers and taking into consideration everything Reese had told him about his recent behavior, his reaction was entirely predictable.

"Listen up, buddy. Here's what we are going to do." Francis laid out the final part of what he had named Operation Turd, in honor of Reese's original e-mail. The younger boy paid close attention, promised to follow instructions to the letter, then laughed at the way Francis concluded the conversation.

"You have your assignment Sly Fox, Big Dog out!" Reese loved Francis and considered him to be his evil mentor. To be fair, he loved Malcolm too but he just didn't like him very much lately. Operation Turd was about to kick into high gear.


	2. Big Dog Rules

The next afternoon Malcolm and Reese walked home from school together. Reese was unusually talkative, a sign that he was nervous or upset. Malcolm picked up on that and figured Reese was concerned about the money he owed. He began to worry a little bit about his brother but remained silent. When they got home Reese locked the front door, something he never did. Malcolm threw his backpack on the dining room table and started foraging in the kitchen for a snack. Usually Reese would be right there with him, tearing through the fridge looking for something tasty. Instead he was peeking out the front window. Suddenly he backed away. He whispered to Malcolm, "I'm not here, butt munch, understand?" Reese disappeared into the bedroom.

Malcolm didn't have time to ask any questions. There was a loud knock on the front door, followed by the bell ringing several times, followed by more very loud knocking. Malcolm opened the door. He saw what he instantly knew were Reese's "big scary guys." One looked to be around 20, the other one, the one obviously in charge was older, maybe 25 or even 30. They were both smoking and both of them had greasy looking, slicked back hair and wore sunglasses pushed up on top of their heads. Malcolm noticed their feet. They were wearing heavy duty boots, something he believed the jerks who wore them called "shit kickers."

"Um, can I help you guys?" Malcolm stood his ground. After all, these morons were on his turf and he wasn't about to back down. The older one glared at him and flicked his cigarette butt at Malcolm's chest. It bounced off and the boy quickly kicked it outside and stepped on it.

"Listen up, d-bag. I'll put the next one out on your face if you don't get your brother's ass out here in the next 10 seconds." Big scary guy number one smiled menacingly while the other one laughed out loud.

Malcolm was rattled but remained defiant. "Look, I don't know who you fuck-tards are or what you want with my brother but he isn't here. Now get off my porch or I'll call the cops."

Before the guys could react Reese appeared behind Malcolm. "It's alright, bro. I'll handle this. Go watch TV or something." Reese stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind him. Malcolm put his ear to the door so he could hear what was happening. He heard his brother say over and over he didn't have the money and he begged for more time. The big scary guys spoke softly and Malcolm couldn't understand what they were saying. After a while Reese opened the door. Malcolm jumped back out of the way.

"Look, everything's OK. I'm going with these guys for a few minutes, it's OK. DO NOT do anything stupid like calling the cops. I wish to god you never said that. They don't like cops at all if you catch my meaning. I'll be back in a few." Reese stepped outside and the tough guys each took one of his arms and escorted him to their waiting car. They all got in the front seat with Reese in the middle. The car sped off, burning rubber.

Malcolm paced back and forth nervously, peeking out the front window every few seconds. After 20 minutes he heard a car screech to a stop in front of the house, he quickly looked outside and saw Reese being roughly shoved out of the car which again burned rubber as it took off. Reese stumbled but didn't fall, he looked terrified and he was barefoot. The expensive sneakers he had gotten for his birthday were gone. Malcolm rushed outside and met Reese as he was coming up the steps to the house.

"Reese, are you alright? Where the hell are your shoes?" Did those a-holes hurt you?" Reese remained silent and walked into the house. He sat down at the table and stared down at his hands. Malcolm sat next to him. "What happened?"

Reese took a deep breath and looked up at his brother. "They took my shoes, they said if I don't pay them what I owe, the next time they'll take one of my toes."

Malcolm was shocked and horrified. "Fuck! How much money do you owe them?"

Reese theatrically wiped his eyes even though there were no tears. He sighed, looked down at his hands again and looked up at Malcolm. "Fifteen hundred. I owe them fifteen hundred dollars."

Malcolm again was shocked. "You're just a kid! How in hell do you owe anyone that much money?"

Reese looked ashamed. "Gambling. I started sneaking out late at night and playing poker over at Richie's house." Malcolm knew Richie was Francis's sleazy friend and absolutely believed he would host late night poker games in the basement of his mom's house.

"Is Richie behind this? That asshole! I'm calling Francis, he'll take care of that scumbag!" Malcolm got up to go to the phone. Reese grabbed him and made him sit back down.

"For fuck's sake no! You can't tell anyone about this, not even Francis. Richie just provided the space, those guys you met ran the games. At first it was cool. They fronted me 20 bucks the first time I played and I won a hundred. Next time, I won 300. Then I started losing. Next thing I knew I owed them fifteen hundred bucks and they gave me 2 days to come up with it. After they took my sneakers they said if I paid 500, they would let me work off the rest."

"Work off the rest? How?" Malcolm looked very worried.

"Being a shill at their poker games. They said I'm innocent looking enough to pull it off and nobody would suspect anything. My job would be to act like a total rube and miraculously win a big pile of money. Of course they rig the game so I win, and the guy they bring in, the mark, is impressed that a total idiot like me could win, so he bets big and ends up owing them a fortune. Then I give back the money I won afterwards. They said I had to do that until I paid off everything at 100 dollars each time, so I'd have to do it 10 times. But that's only if I pay them 500 by tomorrow, or else." Reese held up his left foot and made a snipping gesture with his fingers against his big toe.

Reese put his head down on the table. Malcolm stood behind him and gently put his hand on his brother's shoulder. Reese pretended to cry. After a couple of minutes he sat up straight, covering his face with his hands and pretended to wipe away his pretend tears. "What am I gonna do, man? I don't wanna lose my toe!"

Malcolm was tempted to give Reese the money but he already had told him he didn't have it. If he suddenly said he did have it, Reese would know he had lied. At least that was the justification he came up with for not helping his brother. In reality he didn't want to give up the only thing that was truly his, the money was his independence, it was proof he was smarter than the rest of his family and it was his goddammit, he worked for it, he earned it, and he wasn't about to give it up just because his moron brother got himself into trouble.

Malcolm averted his gaze, he couldn't look Reese in the eye. "Maybe we should tell dad, he'll figure something out."

"Dad? seriously? You know mom doesn't let him have that kind of money. Can't you think of some other way I could get 500 dollars by tomorrow, there must be some way!"

Malcolm shrugged. "No, I can't think of anything."

Reese was deeply hurt. He thought he might cry for real but just shook his head. "That's ok, bro. Don't worry about it." He got up and went to the phone. He quickly dialed a long distance number. Malcolm heard him ask for Big Dog, then after a short wait he heard him say, "Sly Fox reporting. Operation concluded, results are code black, repeat code black." Reese listened, nodded his head and grunted a couple of times. Then he looked at Malcolm and held out the phone. "Someone wants to talk to you."

Malcolm looked totally puzzled and took the phone. "Um, hello?"

Francis confessed to planning the whole scheme. He told Malcolm that he knew he had the money and wanted to prove to Reese that he was still a true Wilkerson brother and he would never let anything bad happen to him. He told him they had no intention of keeping the money and would have immediately given it back. He told him the big scary guys were Richie's cousins and did their part as a personal favor. Then he told him how disappointed he was in him and that he didn't consider him trustworthy any longer and that he would not be included in any future schemes or fun stuff he and Reese might get up to together. Then he told him he still loved him but he hated his behavior and disloyalty. "You know what, Malcolm? You've turned into an uppity little shit, just like Reese said. His nickname for you is turd and it fits." Francis hung up.

Malcolm was deeply ashamed and hurt by his older brother's words. He put the phone down and without saying a word or even looking at Reese, he went to their bedroom. He came out holding the big brown envelope with the cash. He tried to give it to Reese but he wouldn't take it. Malcolm tossed it on the table.

"Reese, I'm so fucking sorry. I don't want the money, you and Francis split it, I don't deserve it."

Reese looked like someone who had just lost his best friend. It was the saddest Malcolm had ever seen his brother and it ripped his heart out knowing he was the cause of it. Reese just stared at him. Finally, he knocked the money on the floor and went to the bedroom and shut the door. Malcolm picked up the envelope and placed it in the trash. He sat down, reflected on how he had betrayed Reese and how he had disappointed Francis, and how he had hurt the two people he loved most in the world. He put his head down on the table and cried.


End file.
